Friday, August 10, 2012

And What the Heck is "Elevenses?" A Book Review

I had no idea what an Elevenses was, or if this was something I would consider buying had it not been an Orangeberry promotion. But I saw it was a cookbook, and I love cookbooks, so I decided to take a look at it.

The description went as follows:

"Elevenses from Around the World
Farmer's Ham from Germany, French Toast from the Bahamas, Beef Kebab from Vietnam, Potato Salad from Brazil, Purple Corn from Bolivia and more. This book offers an insight to much loved breakfasts, brunches and snacks from around the world."

Oh, okay, we're talking breakfast/brunch foods. So I went ahead and checked out the recipes.

First, let me say that I didn't expect to see so many versatile egg recipes. This is awesome, given the number of eggs I have in my fridge.

Second, most of the recipes aren't weird, despite the "around the world" flavor and the fact that this was written by someone "across the pond." Yes, I know that good food is good food, but what Americans think is tasty can be different from other nationalities, despite our melting pot. So, seeing food that wasn't weird was good (this is coming from a woman who eats venison and chevon).

Almost all of them are winners. There are some odd foods that I wouldn't care for such as the Egyptian mashed fava beans, and some ingredients such as black pudding in the English breakfast that I'm not that sure about, but some ingredients can be skipped or substituted if too odd or simply not available.